Smartcards have a variety of uses amongst the most important of which is as a secure data-storage unit for storing critical information such as passwords and electronic funds information. Smartcards may also be used to provide specific functionality (such as encryption/decryption) under password control.
It is known to provide computers with smartcard interface units (often called smartcard readers though, in fact, data is frequently both read from, and passed to, the card). Such smartcard interface units have traditionally been provided as separate peripherals, interfacing with the computer through a dedicated port (for example, an RS232 serial port or more recently with the advent of the Universal Serial Bus for low speed peripheral connection, through a USB port). For user convenience, rather than providing the smartcard interface unit as a separate peripheral, it is also known to incorporate a smartcard interface into the keyboard unit of the computer.
In a typical computer-related smartcard application, encryption keys for electronic commerce transactions are stored in the smartcard and these keys must be read and used by the computer to enable a transaction with a remote third party via a computer network. The storage of passwords for accessing network resources is another common application (controlled remote logon) and, indeed, use of the computer itself may require the presense of a smartcard with the right passwords (controlled local logon).
The insertion of a smartcard into an active smartcard interface unit will generally be detected but whether or not the current operation of the associated computer is affected will depend on how the computer has been set up by a system manager or the user his/herself. For example, the computer may be set up by a system manager to respond to insertion of a smartcard by initiating a remote logon procedure using information held on the smartcard; however, this automatic behaviour may not always be appropriate as a user may be inserting the card for another reason entirely. Thus, whilst it is generally useful to have an automatically-triggered default behaviour on smartcard insertion, this automatic execution of the default behaviour needs to be overrideable.
A similar situation is known with respect to CD-ROM drives provided in computers both for reading CD-ROMs holding computer programs and data, and for playing back audio CD's. It is common practice for such CDs to be run automatically upon insertion (the "autorun" feature). However, immediate running may not always be required. To deal with this situation, in Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system, for example, it is possible to override the autorun feature by holding down the SHIFT key during CD insertion. This arrangement simply overrides autorun--it does not give the user any other choice.
Removal of a CD is always interpreted as meaning that the user no longer wishes to use the CD or any dependent program (on the basis that removal was not accidental which may be checked via a user dialogue window).
It is an object of the present invention to provide increased flexibility of control in the use of a smartcard (or, indeed, any other physically removable resource).